Week 11: Second Life #1

Joining Second Life and looking at some informational videos really had my interested, I think that it is kind of cool of creating your on avatar's life. After watching the movie Avartar, I always wanted to know what it will be like to be an avatar or to have one. But before I could teleport into my second life, I needed to know a lot more about it.  What is Second Life?  Second Life is a popular virtual space for meeting friends, doing business, and sharing knowledge. It is also a place where you can connect, shop, work, love, and explore. It is a place to be different, to be yourself, to free yourself, to free your mind, to change your mind, to change your look, to love your look, and to love your life.

When you enter Second Life for the first time, you'll start on the Welcome Island.  This area is designed to quickly teach you the basics of second life , including: walking, zooming with your camera, chatting, standing/sitting, flying, and teleporting.  Along the way you'll be rewarded with a few entertaining surprises.

There are many activities you can choose from, such as:

Push the limits: Enter a world with infinite possibilities and live a life without boundaries, guided only by your imagination. Do what you love, with the people you love, from anywhere in the world.

Wander: The sky is hardly the limit in Second Life. You'll journey through fictional landscapes and regions inspired by the real world. Soar on the back of a dragon, race through the littered alleys of a cyberpunk future, or stroll through a historically accurate Victorian garden. Second Life has it all.

Go anywhere: Explore destinations inspired by real cities, such as Dublin and Tokyo. Visit new spaces unique to Second Life, such as a Renaissance-inspired Camelot or the 3D home for your alma mater. Immerse yourself in any environment you can imagine: watch the sunset from a mountaintop, dance the night away in a club or plumb the depths of the ocean on a scuba trip.

Travel: Travel by foot, by flying, or else jump in a car, tank, plane or magic carpet. With infinite possibilities come limitless modes of transportation - why not drive a fancy car or sail a pirate ship? Or just spread your arms and take to the sky.

Make friends: Prepare to socialize like never before. Millions of Residents from around the world have made Second Life their online home, so there is no lack of people to meet or old friends to reconnect with.

Find events: Something fun and exciting is always happening in Second Life. From raves and concerts to lectures and screenings, there are plenty of events to explore. You can browse them from your event calendar.

Listed above are just a few activities, but there is so much more you can do.  There are video tutorials that shows you how to do each activities.

http://secondlife.com/whatis/?lang=en-US 

 

Week 10: Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a complete desktop Linux operating system, freely available with both community and professional support. The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Manifesto: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customize and alter their software in whatever way they see fit.

·         Ubuntu will always be free of charge, and there is no extra fee for the “enterprise edition”, we make our very best work available to everyone on the same Free terms.

·         Ubuntu includes the very best in translations and accessibility infrastructure that the Free Software community has to offer, to make Ubuntu usable by as many people as possible.

·         Ubuntu is shipped in stable and regular release cycles; a new release will be shipped every six months. You can use the current stable release or the current development release. A release will be supported for 18 months.

·         Ubuntu is entirely committed to the principles of open source software development; we encourage people to use open source software, improve it and pass it on.

Ubuntu is suitable for both desktop and server use. The current Ubuntu release supports Intel x86 (IBM-compatible PC), AMD64 (Hammer) and PowerPC (Apple iBook and Powerbook, G4 and G5) architectures.

Ubuntu includes more than 1000 pieces of software, starting with the Linux kernel version 2.6 and GNOME 2.30, and covering every standard desktop application from word processing and spreadsheet applications to internet access applications, web server software, email software, programming languages and tools and of course several games.

Click link below to see where my information was obtained from:
https://help.ubuntu.com/10.10/installation-guide/i386/what-is-ubuntu.html.

Week 9: Virtual Machines

A Virtual Machine (VM) is a software implementation of a computing environment in which an operating system (OS) or program can be installed and run.

The virtual machine typically emulates a physical computing environment, but requests for CPU, memory, hard disk, network and other hardware resources are managed by a virtualization layer which translates these requests to the underlying physical hardware.

VMs are created within a virtualization layer, such as a hypervisor or a virtualization platform that runs on top of a client or server operating system. This operating system is known as the host OS. The virtualization layer can be used to create many individual, isolated VM environments.





Typically, guest operating systems and programs are not aware that they are running on a virtual platform and, as long as the VM's virtual platform is supported, this software can be installed in the same way it would be deployed to physical server hardware. For example, the guest OS might appear to have a physical hard disk attached to it, but actual I/O requests are translated by the virtualization layer so they actually occur against a file that is accessible by the host OS.

Virtual machines can provide numerous advantages over the installation of OS's and software directly on physical hardware. Isolation ensures that applications and services that run within a VM cannot interfere with the host OS or other VMs. VMs can also be easily moved, copied, and reassigned between host servers to optimize hardware resource utilization. Administrators can also take advantage of virtual environments to simply backups, disaster recovery, new deployments and basic system administration tasks. The use of virtual machines also comes with several important management considerations, many of which can be addressed through general systems administration best practices and tools that are designed to manage VMs.

A Virtual Box Screenshot allow you to take a screenshot of the guest, only showing the guests screen, as if you took the screenshot from the guest and then saving the screenshot on the host.

Here is a screenshot of Virtualbox for Windows.  Within Virtualbox Ubuntu 11.10 is running.

Here is a screenshot of me using the internet on my Windows operating systems.  Within Virtualbox Ubuntu 11.10 is running.

The link below is where I obtained my information:

http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/definition/virtual-machine.

Week 7: Trends in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing

as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a metered service over a network (typically the Internet).  Cloud computing provides computation, software, data access, and storage resources without requiring cloud users to know the location and other details of the computing infrastructure.  End users access cloud based applications through a web browser or a light weight desktop or mobile app while the business software and data are stored on servers at a remote location. Cloud application providers strive to give the same or better service and performance as if the software programs were installed locally on end-user computers.

Cloud computing has made it easier for companies to experiment and innovate, and the trend will accelerate in the coming year which will be 2012.  Cloud computing is no longer the curiosity it was a few years ago. Today companies are increasingly looking to cloud computing as an integral component of their computing strategy.  The rationale is clear. Companies now understand that cloud computing offers the possibility of being able to more to seamlessly change IT without having the time and expense of setting up, configuring, and deploying new systems.  Many companies are discovering that it is much easier to experiment and innovate with cloud computing than with traditional computing models.  But as with any emerging area it is too soon to declare victory.  Cloud computing is complicated in many ways.  While 2011 was the year when cloud computing took its place as a legitimate strategy, 2012 will be the year when companies need to tackle operational issues of cloud computing.

Click on the link to read more and see the five big trends for cloud in 2012.  http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/infrastructure/232200551

Week 6: Trends in Linux

Linux OS, with time, is emerging as a fairly popular Operating System.  There was time when Desktop PC was considered to be the major part of the Computers segment.  Times have changed, thanks to new powerful Clouds and computing grids, servers now form a big part of the computers.  On Desktop PCs, Windows still holds the majority, followed by OSX which forms around 10% of the desktop market.  But 2011 and 2012 are the years of OS: Android.  Best metrics for popularity of an OS are Virus and the Games.  Both of them are on the rise for Linux.



Linux in Desktop PC's

Windows wins here.  Linux loses by a large margin.  Linux Desktop market share is nearly 0.83% where as Microsoft Windows 7 claims the major share of 42.65% while the other releases of Windows XP and Vista claim 36.44% and 10.88%.  However, beyond these numbers, the trend is somewhat bright for Linux.  In the beginning of 2011.  Linux was only 0.74% which rose to 0.83% by the end of the year.  Its slow, but its going up.  Same goes for OSX, but windos share is gradually falling.

Linux in Servers

Windows servers lead in the market share over Linux Servers but the trend is shifting towards Linux flavors.  First quarter of 2010 in terms of units sold, Windows had a 75.3% market share, (1,379,487 units)compared to 20.8% for Linux (380,429 units) and 3.6% (65,451 units) for Unix.

Linux in Mobile devices: Smartphones, Tablets

2011 & 2012 are years of Mobile.  People use smartphones more than they use desktops, so it's the most important OS of all.  Android is based on the Linux Kernel and is by far the most popular smartphone OS in the world, with Symbian on the steep fall.  Linux has already won over Windows, smartphones alone take Linux market share to be higher than no. of windows PCs.  Android is growing with over millions of apps for the OS already available in the appMarket, with 400,000 apps already.

Click on the link below to read the article were my information came from, and to see a inforgraphic for Growth of Linux.

http://geeknizer.com/linux-growth-rate-trends-visualized-infographic/

Week 5: Trends in Open Source Software

HP to Commit WebOS to Open Source by Fall 2012

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwire -01/25/12)- HP (NYSE: HPQ - News) today began executing its plan to deliver an open webOS by committing to a schedule for making the platform's source code available under an open source license.
The company aims to complete this milestone in its entirety by September.
HP also announced it is releasing version 2.0 of webOS's innovative developer tool, Enyo. Enyo 2.0 enables developers to write a single application that works across mobile devices and desktop web browsers, from the webOS, iOS and Android platforms to the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers -- and more. The source code for Enyo is available today, giving the open source community immediate access to the acclaimed application framework for webOS.

By contributing webOS to the open source community, HP unleashes the creativity of hardware and software developers to build a new generation of applications and devices.
"HP is bringing the innovation of the webOS platform to the open source community," said Bill Veghte, executive vice president and chief strategy officer, HP. "This is a decisive step toward meeting our goal of accelerating the platform's development and ensuring that its benefits will be delivered to the entire ecosystem of web applications."
The webOS code will be made available under the Apache License, Version 2.0, beginning with the source code for Enyo.

webOS roadmapOver the first half of the year, HP will make individual elements of webOS source code available -- from core applications like Mail and Calendar to its Linux kernel -- until the full code base is contributed to the open source community by September.

To read more on this article, go to http://finance.yahoo.com/news/hp-commit-webos-open-source-193000010.html.

Cyber Security Emerging Trends and Threats for 2012

During 2011, cyber security incidents included theft of intellectual propertyand government data, hacktivism, malware targeting mobile devices and a resurgence of the Zeus Trojan, which targets financial information. Protecting against these attacks was a key challenge for organizations of all sizes in both the public and private sectors.
What is in store for 2012? Below is a brief round up of the cyber security threat landscape highlighting some of the challenges we can expect during the next 12 months.


Mobile Devices and Apps
The use of mobile devices will continue to grow in 2012, consequently, so too will the volume of attacks targeted to these devices. Every new smart phone, tablet or other mobile device provides another window for a potential cyber attack. Closely tied to the trend of more smart phones and tablets being deployed in the enterprise will be the influx of new apps for those devices. Location-based mobile apps and games all pose potential threats. The risks include access to information such as physical location or contacts lists, as well as the ability for the apps to download malware, such as keyloggers or programs that eavesdrop on phone calls and text messages. Hackers are quickly learning how to harvest legitimate applications and repackage them with malicious code before selling/offering them on various channels to the unsuspecting user.


Hactivism
Attacks carried out as cyber protests for a politically or socially motivated purpose are expected to increase, especially in light of the activist movements continuing to take place across the country and around the globe. Common strategies used by hactivist groups include denial of service attacks and compromise of user credentials to gain access to data, along with posting of emails, credentials, credit card information and other sensitive exfiltrated information.




Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Poisoning
Cyber criminals will continue to take advantage of the 24-hour news cycle to target visitors searching on the most popular keywords or sites and infect users via sites designed to look like legitimate news services, Twitter feeds, Facebook posts/emails, LinkedIn updates, YouTube video comments, and forum conversations. We expect cyber criminals to take advantages of notable news events such as the London Olympics, U.S. presidential elections, and Mayan calendar predictions.

Social Engineering
Social engineering tactics -- including the use of rogue anti-virus to entice users into clicking on malicious links -- will continue. Experts also anticipate that in 2012 we will also see a growth in fake registry cleanup, fake speed improvement software, and fake back-up software mimicking popular personal cloud services.

Advanced Persistent Threat
Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) refers to a long-term pattern of targeted hacking attacks using subversive and stealthy means to gain continual, persistent exfiltration of intellectual capital. The entry point for espionage activities is often the unsuspecting end-user or weak perimeter security. APT is likely to remain high in 2012. Whether focused on exploiting vulnerable networks for use as a storage location or relay point, or to gain insider information, cyber espionage will remain a consistent threat to networks.



Spear Phishing Attacks
Spear phishing is a deceptive communication (e-mail, text or tweet) targeting a specific individual, seeking to obtain unauthorized access to confidential data. Spear phishing attempts are not typically initiated by "random hackers" but are more likely to be conducted by perpetrators seeking financial gain, trade secrets or sensitive information. Spear phishing is often the nexus to cyber espionage and will continue to grow.

What Can You Do?
By using sound cyber security practices, users and organizations can strengthen readiness and response to help defend against the myriad of challenges and mitigate potential impacts of incidents:

• Make sure that you have encryption and password features enabled on your smart phones and other mobile devices.
• Use strong passwords, ones that combine upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters, and do not share them with anyone. Use a separate password for every account. In particular, do not use the same password for your work account on any other system.
• Properly configure and patch operating systems, browsers, and other software programs.
• Use and regularly update firewalls, anti-virus, and anti-spyware programs.
• Do not use your work email address as a "User Name" on non-work related sites or systems.
• Be cautious about all communications; think before you click. Use common sense when communicating with users you DO and DO NOT know. Do not open email or related attachments from un-trusted sources.
• Don't reveal too much information about yourself on social media websites. Depending on the information you reveal, you could become the target of identity or property theft.
• Verify Location Services settings on mobile devices.
• Allow access to systems and data only by those who need it and protect those access credentials.
• Follow your organization's cyber security policies and report violations and issues immediately.
• Learn to recognize a phishing website. Visit https://www.phish-no-phish.com/ to learn ways to identify a phished website.

For More Information:

• Verizon: http://www.verizonbusiness.com/resources/reports/rp_data-breach-investigations-report-2011_en_xg.pdf
• Symantec: http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/enterprise/white_papers/b-symc_intelligence_qtrly_jul_to_sep_WP.en-us.pdf
• Websense: http://www.websense.com/assets/reports/2012-Predictions-WS-Security-Labs.pdf?cmpid=prnr11.11.17
• SANS Institute: Security Predictions 2012 & 2013 -- http://www.sans.edu/research/security-laboratory/article/security-predict2011
• Georgia Tech: Emerging Cyber Threats Report -- http://www.gtisc.gatech.edu/doc/emerging_cyber_threats_report2012.pdf
• Imperva: Security Trends 2012 -- http://www.imperva.com/docs/HI_Security_Trends_2012.pdf

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